Ɛpsilon

To George Bentham   30 March [1862]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

March 30th

Dear Bentham

Many thanks for your note.2

I will certainly come to London & be at Linn. Soc. if possible, but I have been just lately rather extra headachy; but I hope I shall not fail.3

I fear that my paper will by no means be worth Lindley’s4 attendance.

Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by CD’s reference to reading a paper before the Linnean Society of London (see n. 3, below). CD used the form of address printed on this stationery from 1861 to 1869 (see Carroll ed. 1976, pp. xxii–xxiii); during this time, the only paper by CD read before the Linnean Society in the months March, April, or May, was read in 1862.
2
The letter from Bentham has not been found.
3
CD read his paper, ‘Three sexual forms of Catasetum tridentatum’, before the Linnean Society on 3 April 1862. According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), he travelled to London on 2 April and returned home on 4 April.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3488,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3488